Known motor-driven chain saws of this type have cutting teeth with which a depth limiter is associated in the direction of advancement of the saw chain. The depth limiter may either be integral with the cutting tooth or may be a part separate from the cutting link. The task of the depth limiter is to limit the cutting depth of the cutting tooth, or in other words the chip thickness, in both severing and plunge cutting operations. Under certain working conditions, such as when cutting into soft wood and/or if the operator exerts relatively great force in applying the saw chain against the wood, the depth limiter may not perform its task entirely properly because under certain conditions it is pressed too deeply into the bottom of the kerf. In plunge cutting work, the result may even be the so-called kickback effect, which happens when the cutting tooth cuts too deeply into the wood during the movement of the saw chain over the free end of the guide bar. The depth limiter is then necessarily pulled into the wood also, and sticking there causes a recoil or kickback that presents an immediate danger to the operator. This jamming in the wood occurs particularly if the depth limiter has only a relatively small limiting face in the bottom of the kerf, so that when force is applied, a relatively high surface pressure acts upon this small limiting face.
East German Patent 20418 discloses that the top edge of the depth limiter can be bent transversely to the direction of chain advancement in such a way that the limiting face of the depth limiter in the bottom of the kerf is larger as compared with the width of the base web; as a result, the surface pressure, when the depth limiter penetrates the wood, is kept lower than is the case with conventional depth limiters, which merely have an upper bearing surface of the same width as the base web. In any case, the limiting face of the depth limiter is located parallel to the running surface of the saw chain, the term ""running surface" being understood as the surface traced by the cutting edge during the movement of the saw chain about the periphery of the guide bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,331discloses a saw chain in which the depth limiter is bent out of the plane of the base web of the cutting link, transversely to the direction of travel, in such a manner that the bent limiting face of the depth limiter is disposed next to the plane of the running surface.
In these known saw chains, it is disadvantageous that the depth limiters that are bent transversely to the direction of travel can be reground only to a limited extent, and in each regrinding operation the entire transverse depth limiter surface must regularly be removed. As a result, the overall cutting link is weakened, and after about half of the available material of the depth limiter has been removed, there is the danger that the cutting link will not operate properly, in particular in the region of the depth limiter, during plunge cutting operations or in other words under high loading.
In a saw chain of a different generic type known from European Patent Application 0054169, a chain connecting link disposed beside the depth limiter is configured as extending upwardly in such a way as to provide a surface that is parallel to the actual depth limiter. In addition to the upwardly extending connecting link, an upwardly extended section is also provided on a so-called center link, thereby providing a further surface parallel to the depth limiter. A significant disadvantage of this embodiment is that the friction surface area of the depth limiter is enlarged considerably, and so a substantially greater advancing force is required during work with the chain saw, because of the greater frictional forces that exist. As a result, there is a substantial reduction in efficiency, and greater forces must be exerted for driving the chain saw and applying feeding or advancing pressure thereto. The expenditure for materials is also considerably greater, and the disposition of the additional limiting faces necessitates additional machining, so that all in all this saw chain is complicated and expensive.